Kentucky, LSU give Jacksonville an SEC doubleheader

Friday

The Southeastern Conference continues its return to basketball respectability, especially on the first day of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday — and especially in Jacksonville.

Kentucky and LSU won first-round games at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena on Thursday, Florida won in Des Moines, Iowa, and Auburn in Salt Lake City.

With Tennessee's victory over Colgate on Friday and a loss by Ole Miss to Oklahoma, the conference won five of its first six NCAA Tournament games, with Mississippi State playing Liberty late Friday.

And Jacksonville is the only tournament site where two SEC teams will play back-to-back second-round games.

LSU (27-6) will play Maryland (23-10) at 12:10 p.m. today at the VyStar Arena, with the winner advancing to the East Regional semifinals next week in Washington, D.C. About 30 minutes after the completion of that game, Kentucky (28-6) will play Wofford (30-4), with the winner going to the Midwest Regional semis in Kansas City.

LSU coach Tony Benford was an assistant at Marquette when the Big East sent 11 teams to the NCAA Tournament in 2011. He compared this year's SEC to that kind of depth.

"I think our league is comparable to any league in the country," he said Friday during a news conference at the VyStar Arena. "Similar to [the Big East in 2011], where every night you had to come out and play great basketball."

Kentucky coach John Calipari said Alabama probably should have been included in the tournament.

"We got seven teams, probably should have been eight," he said.

It's been quite the transformation since 2016, when the SEC got only three bids, Kentucky, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt — with Vanderbilt getting blasted by Wichita State by 20 points in a play-in game.

A year later, the SEC got five teams. But Florida and South Carolina met in the regional finals, and the Gamecocks were in the Final Four.

Last year, the conference got a record eight teams in, and five won in the first round. It thinned out after that, with only two making it to the Sweet 16, Kentucky and Texas A&M.

However, the combined total of 15 tournament teams in the last two seasons is more than any other conference except the ACC (16), and all 14 SEC members have made at least one appearance in the Big Dance in the last five years.

"We, as players, understand how tough the conference is," LSU guard Skylar Mays said. "It's good to see all these other teams do well, survive and advance, and I think it shows how tough the SEC is. We want the best for our league."

Calipari offered one reason for the SEC's representation in the tournament and the league's performance over the first two days.

"We had so many close games in our league, games that were down to the last two minutes," he said. "It just toughened every team up."

Take the two SEC teams in Jacksonville, for example. LSU played 11 games in which the final margin was eight points or less and went 9-2. That included six overtime games.

LSU and Florida went to overtime in both regular-season games and split.

Among the other SEC tournament teams, the Gators played 10 SEC regular-season games in which the margin was eight or less and went 4-6. Auburn was 4-4, Mississippi State and Ole Miss were both 4-5 and Tennessee 3-2.

If Kentucky and LSU are to advance, they will face different challenges from two styles of play.

The Wildcats will have to contain the perimeter game of Wofford and 3-point specialists Fletcher Magee and Nathan Hoover, who combined to make 8 of 13 from beyond the arc in the second half in an 84-68 victory over Seton Hall.

Kentucky, as usual, has height and quickness — and confidence.

"It's a really good advantage for us," said 6-foot-11 UK sophomore forward Nick Richards. "They're not really as athletic as all three of us [including other forwards E.J. Montgomery and Reid Travis]. "Their bigs are really skilled around the basket, but we're just better than them, overall."

Wofford forward Cameron Jackson, who had 14 points, 10 rebounds and five assists against Seton Hall, didn’t want to get in a bulletin-board battle.

“It’s not really about proving them wrong,” he said. “It’s about doing what we’re comfortable doing and making the impact on the game that we can … getting the ball to the shooters and rebounding.”

In Maryland, LSU has an opponent that plays a similar type of physical inside game. The chess match will be in the paint with the Tigers' Kavell Bigby-Williams (6-11), Naz Reid (6-10) and Emmitt Williams (6-6) vs. the Terrapins' beefy 6-10 duo of Bruno Fernando and Jalen Smith.

"They're grown men," Benford said of Maryland’s frontcourt. "What it's going to come down to is very simple: It's going to be whoever wins the paint and wins the rebounding battle."

Maryland guard Eric Ayala was wary of the Tigers.

"I don't think we've faced a team with that kind of interior presence this year," he said. "It's going to be fun being able to see how well our big men match up against theirs. The best shall prevail to the end."

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